


My Heart Is Stone, And Still It Trembles

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 07:59:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7631644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imogen's reaction to realising who Jace really is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Heart Is Stone, And Still It Trembles

She had rejoiced at the sight of Valentine Morgenstern’s son brought before her; realised the son was her means of vengeance on the father. Why should she show any compassion to Jonathan Morgenstern when Stephen Herondale lay rotting in a grave in Idris, and had in fact been lost to her long before, when he turned his back on his family for Valentine, became a different man to the man Imogen had raised and loved? With every former member of the Circle she took down, she imagined that she was avenging Stephen, saw his face as she passed sentence on every one. And now she had Valentine’s own son in front of her, now she finally had the opportunity to punish Valentine for all her years of suffering.

Imogen had asked herself since then what she had done wrong, why she had never been able to prevent Stephen from going down the dark path, whether there was any way she could have saved him. But he was gone, and she was never going to get another chance.

Valentine Morgenstern had taken her son from her. Now Imogen had the chance to make him feel the way she had all those years ago, the way she had felt ever since. Why should she show any compassion, where none had been shown to her? If the Morgenstern blood ran through his veins, he was clearly as arrogant as his father had always been, and the way he had acted towards her now proved that.

Yet as her eyes travelled over the face of Jace Lightwood, she realised that she could see nothing of Valentine in his face at all, and that if anything, the face resembled that of her own son, and when she saw the birthmark, she knew. Her second chance had been here the whole time, here was someone she could have had a relationship with, made it right with, and her blindness towards Valentine had prevented her from seeing what was under her nose. In judging Jace Lightwood based on the man she believed to be his father, she had deprived herself of a relationship with him just as Stephen had also been deprived, and she had deprived Jace of the chance to have been raised by a family member, to be have been brought up knowing all about Stephen, to have been brought up carrying the Herondale name. If she had been so wrong about Jace, who or what else could she have been wrong about all those years, blinded by her pain? This punishment and torture she had inflicted upon him, with no idea that she was causing this to her own grandson….but she should have known, could have known if she had seen past her hatred of Valentine to truly look at the boy and recognise him for who he really was.

There was nothing she could do now; she had lost her chance. But as she croaked out her final words that Stephen would be very proud of Jace, she hoped that one day he would understand what she meant, that he would take the time to discover his Herondale heritage on his own, be the man that Stephen would have wanted him to be.


End file.
